DESANTISLAND

Florida education panel decides former teacher who supported Black Lives Matter can reapply for her teaching license

Carlos Suarez, Denise Royal and Ray Sanchez, CNN
Thu, June 13, 2024 


A former Jacksonville, Florida, teacher who said she was fired for displaying a Black Lives Matter flag outside her high school classroom will be able to reapply for her teaching license, an attorney representing the teacher confirmed to CNN.

Attorney Mark Richard said a five-member panel of Florida’s Education Practices Commission agreed with an administrative judge’s recommendation that Amy Donofrio receive a written reprimand after state officials accused the teacher of bringing her personal views into the classroom.

“Black students matter, and they are worth fighting for 100 percent every single day,” Donofrio said after the hearing. “Teachers across the state feel that way too.”

Donofrio said her goal remains to return to the classroom. Her contract with the school was not renewed after the 2020-21 school year.

“It’s a big day in Florida for teachers,” Richard told CNN. “You can stand up to a system that’s been attacking teachers and prevail.”

Thursday’s hearing was prompted by administrative law judge Suzanne Van Wyk’s April recommendation that Donofrio receive a written reprimand for wearing and displaying face masks that read “Robert E. Lee was a gang member” as the district was in the process of renaming six schools.

Donofrio was a beloved and highly regarded high school teacher in Jacksonville, where for years she sought to empower students and advocate for racial justice.

Outside the room where she taught English to mostly Black students at the former Robert E. Lee High School she had placed a sign that read, “Hate Has No Home Here,” according to the April order by an administrative law judge.

“Ms. Donofrio was a pillar for us,” former student Diamond Wallace, 24, told CNN this week. “She acted as a rock for us and she was more like a mom, like a second mom to all of us students.”

At the start of the 2020 school year, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Donofrio, who is White, put up a large “Black Lives Matter” banner outside her classroom. She had displayed a BLM sign and t-shirt in her classroom as early as 2018, according to findings in the administrative judge’s recommendation.

Administrators asked her to remove it, and expressed concern the display might violate school district policy. Donofrio refused. She said she believed the policy did not apply to the banner. On March 23, 2021, a school administrator removed the banner – about five months after she was first asked to bring it down. A day later Donofrio was reassigned to a work at a district warehouse.

School officials had also voiced concerns that Donofrio displayed Robert E. Lee face masks in her classroom – which they considered to be an expression of her personal view. At the time the school district was in the process of renaming six schools named for Confederate generals. Donofrio denied the masks – which were common during the pandemic – were on display. She said the logo “I am not a gang member” was a phrase students use as part of their advocacy of racial justice, according to the administrative judge’s findings.

Van Wyk’s order noted in part that the “offense was not severe” and there was no danger or harm to the public or students. The judge determined there was no evidence that Donofrio “failed to distinguish between her personal views and those of the School, or District” when she displayed the Black Lives Matter banner or that it went against district policy, according to her findings.

The five-person panel of the Education Practices Commission – a member of law enforcement, a parent and three teachers – had the final say and could have revoked her teaching license. The quasi-judicial state agency imposes discipline on teachers and school administrators.

“I’m not doing the thing that I was born to do, that I loved more than anything and I’m having to fight to get it back,” Donofrio, who taught at the school for nine years but has not been allowed back in a Florida classroom since 2021, told CNN earlier this week.

She added, “School is supposed to be a safe place for students. It’s about them.”

Florida Education officials didn’t respond to CNN’s request for comment ahead of the hearing.

The decision on Donofrio’s future as a teacher came at a time when Florida’s classrooms have become front lines in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ culture wars, which have taken aim at every aspect of education from formal classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity to what public schools teach about racism and American history to what books students can read and what bathrooms they can use.

“Our school system should be about educating kids not indoctrinating kids,” DeSantis told reporters in May 2023.
‘I’m a passionate, quality teacher’

In 2021, the BLM banner hanging over Donofrio’s classroom door, as well as her outspokenness on racial justice, became a political flash point across the state. Her advocacy of racial justice was brought up in discussions about whether the school should abandon its Confederate namesake. The school was renamed Riverside High School in June 2021.

Days before the banner was taken down, the district published a memo that stated “employees are not permitted to display flags, banners or other signage representing a particular social cause or movement in a manner that may be interpreted as District speech,” and identified “Black Lives Matter” as “an expression of support for a social justice movement,” according to the administrative judge’s recommended order.

Florida’s former education commissioner called it an example of “indoctrination” and “critical race theory” in schools – even though the discipline was not part of Donofrio’s curriculum.

“There was an entire classroom memorialized to Black Lives Matter,” the former commissioner, Richard Corcoran, told reporters at the time. “We made sure she was terminated.”

Donofrio was not fired even as she defied multiple requests from school officials to take down the flag. She also challenged the district on its treatment of Black students and staff.

The Jacksonville, Florida, school formerly named Robert E. Lee High School is seen in this August 2020 file photo. - Edward Kerns II/MediaPunch/AP

Her students responded by collecting nearly 18,000 signatures on a public petition calling for her return.

“I wasn’t removed for anything having to do with my teaching,” Donofrio said. “No one has ever been able to say anything. Nor of my test scores, right, reflected anything but that I’m a passionate, quality teacher.”

Donofrio eventually sued Duval County Public Schools and its regional high school superintendent in federal court, alleging that the district retaliated against her “for her protected speech, her complaints about discrimination, and, more broadly, her support of Black students’ lives,” according to a complaint filed in April 2021. The school board paid $300,000 to settle the lawsuit in 2021, according to CNN affiliate WJXT.

“I really thought that things were kind of moving forward and then suddenly, we turned human compassion into something that’s controversial,” Donofrio said.

Donofrio’s outspokenness on racial justice was not new. Even before she put out the Black Lives Matter flag, she had led a course for several years to empower Black students through professional development, college preparation and civic engagement.

“For her to be able to make teenagers feel comfortable enough to come in her classroom and express the trauma that they have gone through voluntarily, that’s a gift,” said Wallace’s mother, Renita Turner.

Donofrio and her students earned national attention, and the course eventually became the organization known as the EVAC Movement. Students traveled to the White House in 2016 and met with congressional leaders. Then-President Barack Obama met with them when he visited Jacksonville.

“It is honestly the most beautiful thing I have ever been a part of,” Donofrio recalled this week, referring to the EVAC movement and the attention it garnered for her students.

“Teachers have gathered to swing back in the name of teaching honest history, teaching honestly to their students,” said Donofrio’s lawyer, Mark Richard. “We do not want to be caught in these culture wars.”

Donofrio added, “My students matter, teachers who care about students matter … I have no doubt that with or without me, they’re going to change the world.”

CNN’s Harmeet Kaur contributed to this report.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated whom CNN reached out to for comment. It was the Florida Department of Education.

Judge rejects bankruptcy plan for Alex Jones’ Infowars but allows him to liquidate his personal assets

Jon Passantino, Nicki Brown, Oliver Darcy and Hadas Gold, CNN
Fri, Jun 14, 2024

A Texas bankruptcy judge has rejected a proposed liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ company Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Infowars, saying that a denial of the bankruptcy plan was, in his opinion, in the best interest of the creditors. But the judge approved a separate liquidation of Jones’ personal assets.

Judge Chris Lopez said the Infowars bankruptcy process had dragged on and that it needed to stop “incurring costs” and let the families of Sandy Hook victims try to claim what they are owed through state courts. The families have not received payment of the approximately $1.5 billion in damages against Jones that they have won after he lied about the 2012 school massacre.

“The right call is to dismiss this case,” Lopez said Friday.

Lopez made his ruling in a lengthy decision where he seemed emotional at times, once even noting the timing of this decision being made shortly before Father’s Day.

“I think it needed to happen,” he said towards the end of the hearing. “I wish I would’ve picked a better day.”

Unanswered questions

The rejection of the bankruptcy plan leaves many questions to sort out in the decision’s wake. Among them: What happens next for Infowars? And what legal avenues remain for the victims’ families to collect the massive sum Jones still owes them?

This judgment could be viewed as a partial victory for Jones, who fought the liquidation proposal – but so too did some families, whose attorneys said they’ll benefit more from the bankruptcy plan’s dismissal by going after Jones’ assets immediately – rather than waiting for a prolonged bankruptcy procedure to play out.

That ruling leaves Free Speech Systems to face its creditors outside of bankruptcy in state courts, noted Marie Reilly, professor of bankruptcy law at Penn State University.

In a statement, an attorney for the families said they would press on.

“Today is a good day. Alex Jones has lost ownership of Infowars, the corrupt business he has used for years to attack the Connecticut families and so many others,” said Chris Mattei, an attorney for the families. “The Court authorized us to move immediately to collect against all Infowars assets, and we intend to do exactly that.”

Lopez noted that the case is far from over. The interim trustee, and later the permanent trustee , in Jones’ personal case will ultimately decided Infowars’ fate.

“Those trustees will make decisions about where things go,” he said. “We’re not leaving thing s into the wind here.”

Jay Westbrook, a University of Texas bankruptcy law professor, said that Infowars could still be sold by the court-appointed trustee to pay some of the damages owed to the families, but it would likely not fetch a high price.

“Jones owns [Free Speech Systems] and thus his bankruptcy trustee could sell it, but without his active promotion it may be of little value, except for its inventory of products he has been selling,” Westbrook said.

Jones had been opposed to liquidating Infowars and in recent days ranted on his show about what could be its impending shutdown, urging his audience to buy his products to support him.

“I’m going to try to move forward and maximize the amount of money we can make at Info wars to then have a wind-down,” Jones said outside the court house after the hearing Friday.

Jones’ attorney, Vickie Driver, applauded the decision, saying the judge was fair in his review of the unique aspects of the case.

“Mr. Jones did everything he could to preserve as much value as he could in Free Speech Systems to pay the plaintiffs,” Driver said.

Westbrook said if Jones continues at Infowars, it could maximize the amount of money the victims families could draw from it.

“The problem is that Jones’ appeal to his audience, awful as it is to say it, is probably the only thing of value he has that is not exempt in Texas and it is very difficult to make him use it to benefit anyone else,” Westbrook said.
Jones’ personal bankruptcy approved

Earlier on Friday, Lopez approved the liquidation of Jones’ personal assets after the conspiracy theorist agreed to convert his personal bankruptcy into a Chapter 7 liquidation last week. The liquidation means that Jones will immediately lose control of his property except for certain exempt property, such as a $2 million house in Austin.

Jones’ decision to seek bankruptcy protection comes after he agreed to demands from the families of Sandy Hook victims.

The judge said an interim trustee will be appointed to oversee Jones’ estate, as is standard in these cases. Jones’ attorney Vickie Driver told the court $2.8 million from the sale of Jones’ ranch could be sent to the trustee.

Jones founded Infowars, an influential conspiracy empire, in the late 1990s. Over the years, Jones has used the media company to poison the public discourse with lies and conspiracy theories, and he also enriched himself, making millions of dollars in the process.

Whatever proceeds are gained from Jones’ personal bankruptcy will amount to just a fraction of what he owes families of Sandy Hook victims.

The families argued to the court that there is “no prospect” the Jones’ company could produce a proper reorganization plan under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which would allow the company to remain operational through its restructuring.

The judge’s rulings on Friday would not prevent Jones from spreading conspiracy theories and lies online. X CEO Elon Musk restored Jones’ social media account in December 2023 after a five-year ban from the platform. And Jones could go on any number of far-right outlets to share his outlandish views.

But the Sandy Hook families are hoping to seize Jones’ social media accounts, arguing they are a key part of his Infowars business that allow Jones to promote his brand. And Jones may not be welcome at some venues: He had been listed as a guest on the Milwaukee stop on Tucker Carlson’s live tour but was recently dropped from the lineup without explanation.
Lies and conspiracy theories

Since founding Infowars in the late 1990s, Jones has pushed several conspiracy theories, including the lie that the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, mass school shooting was a so-called “false flag” operation staged by the government and that the grieving family members of 20 child victims were “actors.” Jones makes money on those conspiracy theories by hawking high-priced dietary supplements to his audience.

The mood Friday on Jones’ Infowars was somber, with the far-right outlet’s hosts speculating on its future. Chase Geiser, an Infowars host who had driven with Jones to the courthouse where the bankruptcy hearing was underway, made a brief appearance on the outlet, attempting to twist the judge’s decision as one that would net Jones an even larger audience.

Jones’ regularly scheduled program was replaced with previously recorded interviews, airing conversations with Tucker Carlson and Russell Brand.

This story has been updated with additional developments and context.

CNN’s Liam Reilly contributed to this report

Unsafe levels of E. coli found in Paris' Seine River less than 2 months before Olympics

MORE DANGEROUS THAN A SHARK!

TOM NOUVIAN
Updated Sat, June 15, 2024 





Paris Seine Bacteria
he Alexander III bridge, center, is visible July 11, 2023, in Paris. In 2024. Water in the Seine River had unsafe elevated levels of E. coli less than two months before swimming competitions are scheduled to take place in it during the Paris Olympics, according to test results published Friday, June 14, 2024.

 (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla, File)

PARIS (AP) — Water in the Seine River had unsafe elevated levels of E. coli less than two months before swimming competitions are scheduled to take place in it during the Paris Olympics, according to test results published Friday.

Contamination levels in the first eight days of June, after persistent heavy rain in Paris, showed bacteria such as E. coli and enterococci beyond limits judged safe for athletes.

The report was published by monitoring group Eau de Paris one day after a senior International Olympic Committee executive said there were “no reasons to doubt” races will go ahead as scheduled in a historic downtown stretch of the Seine near the Eiffel Tower.

The first Olympic event in the cleaned-up Seine is men’s triathlon, including a 1.5-kilometer (under 1 mile) swim, on the morning of July 30. The women’s triathlon is the next day and a mixed relay event is on Aug. 5.

Marathon swimming races over 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) for women and men are scheduled on Aug. 8 and 9, respectively, in waters that were historically polluted before a $1.5 billion investment ahead of the Olympics

“We are confident that we will swim in the Seine this summer,” IOC official Christophe Dubi said Thursday at an online briefing after hearing an update Paris from city officials and Olympic organizers.

Despite the IOC’s publicly expressed confidence, the final decision on approving the events safe for athletes should rest with the governing bodies of individual sports, World Aquatics and World Triathlon.

The safety of the Seine water for the Olympics has been in doubt since some test events scheduled last August were cancelled, also after unseasonal heavy rains.

According to European standards, the safe limit for E. coli is 900 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters. The World Triathlon Federation uses the same criteria to determine sufficient water quality for competitions.

During the first eight days of June, test results showed that E. coli levels frequently exceeded these thresholds. Enterococci levels were better, mostly staying within safe limits. The tests indicated an improvement, from high contamination levels on June 1 to more acceptable levels by June 9, mainly due to improved weather.

Rainwater infiltrates the sewer system, and to prevent street flooding, the excess water, carrying fecal bacteria, is diverted into the Seine. To address this, a massive reservoir capable of storing 50,000 cubic meters of water during heavy rainfall was inaugurated in May.

Water quality of rivers in major cities can be impacted by many things, from runoff to dumping of chemicals, sometimes illegally, and boat traffic.

Earlier this week, Paris’ mayor Anne Hidalgo doubled down on her promise to take a dip in the river before the start of the competition. On Tuesday, she confirmed that her swim was postponed until after the snap elections in France, which end on July 7.

OK MAYBE NOT....

WNBA backed by Caitlin Clark continues to hemorrhage money despite record attendance and ratings

Mike Bedigan
Thu, Jun 13, 2024

Despite the growing popularity of the WNBA, the league is hemorrhaging money, with losses expected to rise to up to $50m this year, sources have said (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Despite the recent explosion of the popularity of the WNBA, led by stars including Caitlin Clark, the league is hemorrhaging money, with losses expected to rise to up to $50m this year, according to a report.

Popular players such as Clark, Angel Reese and Sue Bird, have all earned individual sponsorship deals off the back of their successes, though the WNBA still lags far behind other major US sports leagues in terms of revenue.


NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in 2018 that the WNBA had lost an average of more than $10m per year since its founding. Sources with knowledge of the figures, who spoke to The Washington Post anonymously, said that that loss was expected to increase five-fold by the end of 2024.

“The truth is, this league would be hard-pressed to exist without the NBA,” one WNBA team executive told The Post. The individual spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the league’s finances.

Last year, the league was valued at between $180m and $200m, according to Bloomberg – a fraction of its male counterpart, the NBA, which earns more than $10bn.

A deal over next year’s broadcast rights to the WNBA, currently valued around $60m, are under negotiation by the NBA, which owns 60 percent of the league.

Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal reported the deal for the NBA will be worth more than $7bn per year – but for both leagues. Value figures for the WNBA have not been assigned specifically, meaning the league’s rising popularity may not factor much into how much money it receives in the deal.

Several media executives have predicted that through the deal the WNBA could triple its annual rights revenue to somewhere between $180m and $200m. According to The Post however, the value of the rights will ultimately not be decided by media companies, but by the NBA.

“If you’re not getting a number from the media companies, then you are hanging on to the NBA,” Laura Gentile, an industry consultant and ESPN’s former chief marketing officer, told The Post.

Sources say that despite its growing popularity, the WNBA is set to lose up to $50m this year (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

“You’re saying it’s a rounding error in the grand scheme of business. Maybe that’s the case, but it doesn’t help the ecosystem grow. Women’s sports want accountability; they want their growth projections to matter.”

Some believe although the NBA may fairly recognize the increasing value and popularity of the women’s league, it will still be somewhat hamstrung by the ties.

“Even if the money is less, I would rather have independent money, because then you have a real business,” David Samson, the former president of MLB’s Miami Marlins, told The Post.

“If a media company says we value the WNBA at X, that’s a real value of what the WNBA’s rights are. Otherwise, it’s like buying social media followers: perceived value but not real.”

Caitlin Clark responds to bigotry in WNBA audience: 'People should not be using my name to push those agendas'

Amid discourse around the rookie phenom, the Fever got their fourth win of the season


Kari Anderson
Contributing writer
Fri, Jun 14, 2024

As discourse around Indiana Fever rookie and women's basketball phenom Caitlin Clark grows louder, some of the discussion has taken an uglier turn into racism and misogyny directed at the rest of the WNBA.

On Thursday, Clark refuted that language, saying that she does not want her name used in that context.

"Everybody in our world deserves the same amount of respect. The women in our league deserve the same amount of respect," Clark said in response to a question from The Athletic's James Boyd. "People should not be using my name to push those agendas."

I asked #IndianaFever’s Caitlin Clark directly about her name being weaponized for racism/misogyny (as Dijonai Carrington alluded to):

“It’s disappointing. … Everybody in our world deserves the same amount of respect. The women in our league deserve the same amount of respect.” pic.twitter.com/gyAWBqGG8c

— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) June 13, 2024

Clark's response came after an answer to a question asked by The Athletic's Jim Trotter earlier on Thursday, in which Clark said that her name being weaponized is out of her control.

"I'm just here to play basketball," Clark said.

#IndianaFever’s Caitlin Clark on her name being weaponized in non-sports topics:

“It’s not something I can control. … And to be honest, I don’t see a lot of it.”

“People can talk about what they want to talk about. … I’m just here to play basketball.”

Qs by @JimTrotter_NFL pic.twitter.com/VhGC7cIgLf

— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) June 13, 2024

The answer, which some perceived as dismissive of the bigotry pervasive in the conversation, prompted criticism, including from Connecticut Sun guard Dijonai Carrington, who posted about the response on X.

"How one can not be bothered by their name being used to justify racism, bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia & the intersectionalities of them all is nuts," Carrington wrote. "We all have a platform. We all have a voice & they all hold weight. Silence is a luxury."

Dawg. How one can not be bothered by their name being used to justify racism, bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia & the intersectionalities of them all is nuts. We all see the sh*t. We all have a platform. We all have a voice & they all hold weight. Silence is a luxury.

— dιjonaι carrιngтon♛ (@DijonaiVictoria) June 13, 2024

Boyd asked Clark the more specific question, relating to racism and misogyny, soon after Carrington's post. There, the former Iowa guard was more clear.

"Just treating every single woman in this league with the same amount of respect I think is just a basic human thing that everybody should do," Clark said. "I think it's very simple."

Clark has had to deal with a lot of noise since joining the WNBA in April, most recently around her being left off the Team USA Olympic roster — a perceived snub to many of her fans. Clark herself said that she sees being left off the team as "something to work for."

On Thursday night, Clark and the Fever won their fourth game of the season with a 91–84 victory over the Atlanta Dream. Clark scored seven points on 3-for-11 shooting, adding four rebounds and six assists. Aliyah Boston led Indiana with 27 points and 13 rebounds, followed by Kelsey Mitchell's 24 points.

 

GOP Lawmaker Grilled On Why Abortion 

Was 'Best Choice' For His Girlfriend, But Not Others

David Moye

Fri, June 14, 2024 

A Colorado Republican had a hard time explaining why he said he “respected” his girlfriend’s right to abortion but voted against abortion rights as a state representative.

Richard Holtorf, who is running against U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert to represent Colorado’s 4th District in Congress, was asked about the seeming hypocrisy during a Wednesday broadcast on Denver station KUSA, and he didn’t really have a good answer.

Earlier this year, Holtorf revealed that he once provided financial support to a girlfriend amid her own abortion so she could “live her best life,” despite also sponsoring a failed 2020 measure that would have banned the procedure in the state after 22 weeks.

“I respected her rights and actually gave her money to help her through her important, critical time,” Holtorf said in January.

During the KUSA interview, reporter Kyle Clark pointed out the apparent inconsistency.

“If abortion was the best choice for your girlfriend, why try to deny that choice to other women?” Clark blunty asked.

Holtorf tried to wiggle out of a straight answer, saying he’s “a pro-life Catholic” who believes that “everyone should choose life.” But he eventually said that, yes, his girlfriend had made the choice to get an abortion.

“Did she have that right? Yes. Was it my choice, Kyle? No,” Holtorf said.

“Why do you seek to deny the choice that you said was best for your girlfriend’s life?” Clark began to ask.

“Let me finish explaining,” Holtorf interrupted, but Clark pressed him, asking, “Why do you seek to deny it to other women?”

Holtorf said that as “a pro-life person,” he thinks “you should try to choose life every time. But there are exceptions. And there are times when you need abortion. Abortion is a medical procedure.”

“Is one of the exceptions when Richard Holtorf’s the father?” Clark asked.

“It’s not about me. Don’t personalize it and make it about me,” Holtorf responded.

When Clark reminded Holtorf that he’d discussed his girlfriend’s abortion on the floor of the Colorado House, the politician claimed that wasn’t an important detail.

“That doesn’t matter,” Holtorf said. “That’s a story. That’s not that important. What’s more important is the policy.”

You can see the exchange below.

Elon Musk Demands Money Back From Employees He  Laid Off   FIRED

Victor Tangermann
Fri, June 14, 2024 



Clawback


After firing a number of X-formerly-Twitter staff in Australia, the platform's new owner Elon Musk is threatening to take them to court, demanding to claw back payments after claiming the company had accidentally overpaid them.

The flailing social media service fired much of its remaining staff stationed in Australia back in January 2023. But thanks to an alleged currency "conversion error," the social media company is now asking the fired employees to repay up to $46,500 in US dollars in some cases, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

In other words, X is kicking its former staff while they're down — a gross example of an employer blaming laid off workers for its own careless accounting mistake.

AUD Lang Syne

According to the report, at least six former X employees received letters in the mail, alleging that they had "received a significant overpayment in error in January 2023."

"We would be grateful if you could arrange the repayment to us [using the account details below] at your earliest convenience," the letter reads.

The payment was made to the former staff in the form of Twitter shares, which were valued at the price when Musk bought the company in 2022. The number of shares varies, depending on how long each employee worked for the company.

Per the Herald, overpayments range anywhere between $1,000 and $46,500 US.

The company also threatened the former staff members with legal action if the money wasn't repaid.

Atwitter

According to the Herald, none of the former employees yet have complied with the unusual request.

The social media platform has also been hit by a class-action suit in California, filed by former employees who claim they were never paid severance.

The latest accounting error shouldn't come as a surprise, considering the sheer chaos the company has been in over the last two years. Following his disastrous acquisition of Twitter, Musk has slammed the company with several rounds of mass layoffs. The mercurial CEO's abhorrent behavior has since scared away many advertisers, and the platform has quickly descended into a cesspool of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and extreme right-wing pundits.

It's still unclear whether X has any recourse in asking for its money back. Employment law specialist Hayden Stephens told the Herald that the former employees should ask the company for supporting evidence before handing over any money.

Under Australian labor law, Stephens explained that "there is usually an obligation to repay that money" in the case of a genuine mistake.

Elon Musk's X attracts more right-leaning users since Twitter takeover, new research finds

Pascale Davies

EURONEWS

Thu, June 13, 2024


Elon Musk's social media platform X, formerly called Twitter, has become more popular with right-leaning users in the two years since he bought the company, newly published research has found.

The Pew Research Center study, which looked at some 10,200 social media users in the United States, found that the percentage of Republicans that said X is "mostly good" for democracy increased to 53 per cent this year, a figure that has tripled since 2021.

Meanwhile, just 26 per cent of Democrat users said X was good for democracy this year, compared to 47 per cent in 2021.

Musk has said his aims was to make X a platform for free speech, having previously expressed disdain at what he called "far, far left San Francisco views" that dominated then Twitter.

Elon Musk ready to ban Apple products at his companies after ChatGPT integration

When he took over the platform he reversed a Twitter ban on former president Donald Trump and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

As a result, the study found that just a third of Democrats surveyed said their views were welcomed on X.

In contrast, more than half of Republicans surveyed said they "feel welcome" on the site.

The study also looked at Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, but said these social media sites were not primarily used to consume news but for other reasons like connecting with family and friends and entertainment.

It found that X was the exception to the pattern with 65 per cent using the platform to get their news, and as many as half of surveyed X users regularly getting news on the site.

Elon Musk's X platform is hiding which posts you 'like' citing privacy reasons
Left-leaning users more likely to see inaccuracies

However, on all four sites, more people see users expressing opinions or funny posts about current events rather than news articles or breaking news.

Yet, 79 per cent of X users also saw news articles (linked, posted, or reposted) and more X users are more likely to see breaking news on the site compared to the other social media platforms.

Democratic-leaning X users were also more likely than conservatives to say they saw inaccurate news on the site with some 66 per cent of X users saying they think the platform influences which news stories they see.

News consumers on X (37 per cent) followed by Facebook (33 per cent) were the most likely to say they often see news that seems inaccurate.

Elon Musk drops lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman

The study comes just five months before the 2024 US presidential election in November as concern rises about the accuracy of information on social media.

Almost 75 per cent of those X users surveyed said they come across political content as they scroll through the site, the study found.

As well as ramping up criticism of Democratic US president Joe Biden on the platform, Musk has come under fire for his public support on X for German far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD), recently posting this week that he didn’t understand why its policies were being branded "extremist".

Comer investigating news-rating group

WHAT A MAROON 

WHEN THEY SAY THEY ARE APOLITICAL 

THEY ARE RIGHT WING

Sarah Fortinsky
Thu, June 13, 2024 

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced Thursday he is launching a probe into a news-rating system that seeks to guard against misinformation by scoring news and information sites based on their reliability, trustworthiness and financial conflict of interest.

Comer said the probe will focus on “the impact of NewsGuard on protected First Amendment speech and its potential to serve as a non-transparent agent of censorship campaigns.”

In a letter to NewsGuard’s chief executive officers, veteran news executives Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, Comer requested documents on the company’s contracts with federal agencies and “its adherence to its own policies intended to guard against appearances of bias,” including how the company avoids conflicts of interest.

“The Committee seeks to make an independent determination about whether NewsGuard’s intervention on protected speech has been in any way sponsored by a federal, state, local, or foreign government,” Comer wrote in his letter.

“The Committee does not take issue with a business entity providing other businesses and customers with data-based analysis to protect their brands. Rather, we are concerned with the potential involvement of government entities in interfering with free expression. Truthfulness and transparency about the purpose and origin of inquiries and managing conflicts of interest that may impact the public good are also relevant,” Comer added in the letter.

NewsGuard is a web extension that rates the reliability of news sources, in what appears as a nutrition label. The scores come from a team of “expert journalists” who rate publishers on a scale of 0-100, based on “a set of apolitical criteria of journalistic practice,” according to the website.

The factors include whether the site repeatedly publishes “false or egregiously misleading content,” whether it presents the information “responsibly,” whether it has “effective practices for correcting errors,” and whether it treats opinion and news differently. Other criteria include avoiding deceptive headlines, disclosing ownership and financing and revealing possible conflicts of interest.

“We look forward to clarifying the misunderstanding by the committee about our work for the Defense Department,” Crovitz said in a statement to The Hill. “Our work for the Pentagon has been solely related to hostile disinformation efforts by Russian, Chinese and Iranian government-linked operations targeting Americans and our allies.”

Crovitz, a former publisher of The Wall Street Journal, also touted NewsGuard as “the only apolitical service” that rates news outlets, saying, “the others are either digital platforms with their secret ratings or left-wing partisan advocacy groups.”

He noted the rating system has resulted in positive and negative scores for right-leaning and left-leaning outlets.

“Under NewsGuard’s apolitical rating system, many conservative outlets outscore similar left-leaning brands: The Daily Caller outscores The Daily Beast, the Daily Wire outscores the Daily Kos, Fox News outscores MSNBC and The Wall Street Journal outscores the New York Times,” he wrote.

FREE PELTIER

Parole Commission Decision on Leonard Peltier's Release Expected Within 21 Days

Leonard Peltier (Photo/File)

BY LEVI RICKERT 

 

JUNE 11, 2024

A decision to determine the fate of American Indian Movement (AIM) member Leonard Peltier (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) by the U.S. Parole Commission will come within 21 days. The first parole hearing in 15 years for Peltier, 79, who is incarcerated for the killing of two FBI agents,Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, was held on Monday, June 10, 2024. 

The hearing was held before a U.S. Parole Commission examiner inside the United States Penitentiary, Coleman, a high-security prison, in Coleman. Fla.

RELATED: Parole Commission: It’s Long Past the Time to FREE Leonard Peltier

The back and forth between those representing the government and those seeking Peltier’s release at the hearing felt like a trial, according to an unnamed source who spoke with Native News Online on Monday evening. 

Nick Tilsen, president and CEO of NDN Collective, an Indigenous advocacy group, was a witness who wants Peltier freed.

“This whole entire hearing is a battle for his life,” Tilsen said. “It’s time for him to come home.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray, sent a letter, dated June 7, 2024, in opposition to Peltier’s release.

“Given the overwhelming and unassailable evidence of his guilt, the brutality of his crimes, and his persistent refusal to accept responsibility, I urge you in the strongest terms possible to deny Peltier’s application for parole. To afford him release after what he did and how he has conducted himself since would most certainly “depreciate the seriousness of his offense [and] promote disrespect for the law,” Wray wrote.

Amnesty International Executive Director Paul O’Brien wrote a letter to the parole commission pleading for Pelter’s freedom on humanitarian grounds. 

“Given the ongoing, unresolved concerns about the fairness of Leonard Peltier’s incarceration, that he has spent nearly 50 years in prison, his age, and ongoing and chronic health issues, it is our view that granting parole on humanitarian grounds in this case is not only timely but a necessary measure in the interests of both justice and mercy,” O’Brien wrote.

 

Parole Commission: It’s Long Past the Time to FREE Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians) was arrested in Canada to face murder charges of the two FBI agents killed on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.





BY LEVI RICKERT JUNE 09, 2024

Opinion. For the first time in 15 years, Leonard Peltier will be afforded a full parole hearing on Monday, June 10 at the United States Penitentiary at Coleman, Fla. 

Peltier (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) has been incarcerated for 48 years for the killing of two FBI agents at Oglala on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in June 1975. For five decades, Peltier has maintained his innocence and hoped for the chance to clear his name.  

Monday’s hearing may well be his last chance at vindication.  

The incident that led to Peltier’s imprisonment happened some 49 years ago, when two FBI agents — Jack Coler and Ronald Williams — arrived at a residence on the reservation to pursue a suspect who had taken a pair of shoes in a robbery. The two FBI agents, who were white, arrived in an unmarked car in plain clothes. 

Tensions were already running high between law enforcement and Native Americans in South Dakota in the aftermath of the 71-day siege of Wounded Knee by the American Indian Movement (AIM) in early 1973. The incident occurred during a time known on Pine Ridge as a “reign of terror,”' characterized by deadly ambushes on highway checkpoints and extended gunfights. During this span, some 64 Native Americans were murdered and over 300 were physically assaulted.

On June 26, 1975, the situation escalated when Coler and Williams were killed during a shootout as they attempted to apprehend a young AIM member accused of theft and assault. The gunfight involved numerous individuals, and there has never been a denial that Peltier was present during the shooting, but he has said repeatedly he did not kill the agents. 

It didn’t matter. He was accused of shooting the two FBI agents. He fled to Canada, only to be extradited back to the United States in 1976 to stand trial for the agents' murders.

Following a controversial trial marred by allegations of prosecutorial conduct, falsified testimony, and fabricated evidence, Peltier was convicted of aiding and abetting murder and has been imprisoned since 1977.

Notable legal experts, including former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, say Peltier was not given a fair trial by the U.S. government.

“I think I can explain beyond serious doubt that Leonard Peltier has committed no crime whatsoever. But if he had been guilty of firing a gun that killed an FBI Agent, it was in defense of not just his people but the integrity of humanity from domination and exploitation,” Clark said. “You have to remember no witness really said they saw Leonard take aim at anybody. No witness said they heard him shoot at the time he could have killed an agent. There was no evidence that he did it, except fabricated, circumstantial evidence, overwhelmingly misused, concealed and perverted.”

Even federal Judge Gerald Heaney, who presided over an appeal hearing, has said the FBI utilized improper tactics to convict Peltier. He suggests the FBI was equally responsible for the shoot-out.

In 2017, former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds wrote a letter to President Obama to support clemency for Peltier. Reynolds was the federal prosecutor involved in the legal proceedings against Peltier, playing a significant role in the case. 

In his later years, Reynolds has publicly expressed doubts about the fairness of Peltier's trial and has joined calls for his clemency, acknowledging issues with the case and the conduct of the prosecution. Reynolds urged Obama to grant Peltier’s clemency petition “as being in the best interests of justice considering the totality of all matters involved.”

Through the years, the FBI has adamantly opposed the release of Peltier. While the deaths of their two agents at Oglala were tragic by all human standards, the deaths of hundreds of innocent Native Americans who died during the 1970s’ Reign of Terror were equally tragic.

To many Native Americans, Peltier is a symbol of an oppressive federal system that relegates Native people to apartheid and neglect. He is a political prisoner that we may only think about if we happen to see a bumper sticker on the back of a vehicle that reads “FREE Leonard Peltier.”

Beyond his Native American supporters, many people and human rights organizations — including Amnesty International, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, National Congress of American Indians, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and others — have stated their beliefs that Peltier is a political prisoner who should be immediately released.

Now 79 years old, Peltier suffers from multiple health issues and has to use a walker to maneuver the maximum-security prison. He also suffers from diabetes, blindness in one eye, and an aortic aneurysm. As with other elders, his advanced age has rendered him frail. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Peltier’s age and comorbidities unequivocally made him eligible for home release under Department of Justice guidelines. The Department of Justice ignored the pleas to have Peliter released then.

In a recent episode of Native Bidaské, I asked attorney Kevin Sharp, who will represent Peltier at the parole hearing on Monday, how he thought the parole commission would react to the fact Peltier has maintained his innocence through the years. Typically, parole boards want convicted prisoners to admit guilt and express remorse.

“It's difficult because Leonard didn't commit the crime, and there's no evidence that he did. He shouldn't lie about something he didn't do. Leonard has expressed remorse for the tragic events of that day and the overall situation,” Sharp responded.

Peltier’s spiritual advisor of 40 years, Lenny Foster (Diné), spoke with me Saturday morning about his hopes for his longtime friend.  

“We are hoping and praying that the parole commission will grant Leonard parole so that he can go back to his people on the Turtle Mountain Reservation to be with his loved ones to serve out his remaining years to be with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” Foster told me. “He is a revered elder among the Indian community.” 

Nearly 80, Peltier is a Native American elder who poses no threat to society. He’s old and broken. He has paid a price for an injustice to him, his family, and to all Native Americans. It is past time to free Leonard Peltier.

Thayék gde nwéndëmen - We are all related.